How to Quickly Save Up $2,000: Tips from Top Personal Finance Bloggers

More than half of Americans likely wouldn’t have $2,000 to cover an unexpected expense in the next month, according to a new study reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Why $2,000? According to the study, 2K represents an unexpected expense such as a major car repair, a large copayment on a medical expense, legal expenses, or a home repair expense. That means 1 out of 2 consumers are financially unprepared to tackle these types of expenses.

When faced with these scary results, we asked our favorite personal finance bloggers, “How would you come up with a way to save $2,000 quickly?” We’re sharing these expert responses with you with the hope that you’ll take action to start that emergency fund yourself.

Read on, and happy saving!

The best way to save $2,000 is to click the transfer button once your paycheck hits your account! Should take about 8 seconds with some finger muscle sacrifice.

There are two ways to do this. 1. Sell $2,000 worth of things that you own, sacrificing the value you derived from owning that stuff. Most American consumers could do this in a day. 2. Sacrifice your time and energy to earn the $2,000 through various extra jobs. Time will vary based on your abilities.

It may take a combination of creative ideas to make it work quickly. I would check my home for gently used materials that I can sell via Craigslist or home consignment centers. I would also try to snag a project via networking which can use my skills. I also suggest trying income streams.

It never ceases to amaze me how much money people can come up with if they just sell junk from around their house on Ebay! Some of the best pack-rats out there might be able to come up with $2k just by this method alone and all it requires is devoting a weekend to the process.

Unfortunately there is no best way to save X dollars. It varies from family to family. I suggest looking at your expenses to find what you can cut out. It may be excessive dinners out or doll-hording, it all adds up.

Coming up with $2,000 could be easy or hard depending on your situation. I think the best way to come up with the money is to have it around in the first place. This is why having an emergency fund is so important. If you are looking for a way to quickly save $2,000, I would look at non-essential recurring costs. For example, packing lunch to work can save you $25-50 a week, cutting cable can save $100-$200 a month, not eating out/going out once a week can save $25-100, etc. These three alone can save you $300-$800 a month, allowing you to save $2,000 in 3-7 months.

Saving 2K can be an intimidating goal to accomplish immediately, so break it down to small steps over time to encourage yourself to get it done! Pick a “tradeoff” you can do regularly to help you save. Trade habits like weekly movie trips, happy hours, or roadtrips and save it towards your 2K. A key part is to use cool tools to motivate you to stay on track, like Piggymojo, which turns your mobile phone into a daily savings reminder, and Smartypig, a fun-to-use savings account. The idea is to incorporate something do-able into your daily routine, so you can keep it up even after you save up 2K.

Disclaimer: All information posted to this site was accurate at the time of its initial publication. Efforts have been made to keep the content up to date and accurate. However, Credit Karma does not make any guarantees about the accuracy or completeness of the information provided. For complete details of any products mentioned, visit bank or issuer website.

3 Comments

Good stuff guys. I thought we were only supposed to write 40 words each? Lol

Hope people get my advice. It’s basically saying don’t listen to mass media who says everybody is poor and the world is ending. Clear the world is still turning and people are rational and have saved more than they’ve earned and should have no problems ponying up $2,000 if necessary. This is America! Go USA!

Best,

Sam

Sam at 1:57 pm on June 28, 2011

My advice would be to bank at a credit union the fees if there are any are smaller, shop at stores like save-a-lot and dollar general, get budget car insurance ($30/month from 4autoinsurancequote) and dont use credit cards, I dont understand the point of having a credit card because thats instant debt, you dont have the money to buy something then you shouldnt buy it. Why would anybody pay money to use money???

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